During today's Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation Nintendo introduced a new dimension to their online offering, called Nintendo Network Premium. It's a loyalty program similar to "PlayStation Plus" offered on PSN.

It is believed that this is only available with the Premium Wii U package, which also benefits from 32GB of internal storage and a larger price tag than the standard 8GB bundle (31,500 Yen vs 26,250 Yen). The Nintendo Network Premium service is designed for users who intend to download lots of content and includes a 10% discount on games in the online store.

Anthony started Nintendo Life way back in late 2005 and has remained at the helm ever since. He loves Nintendo but sometimes gets confused and starts telling everyone that F-Zero X is the best F-Zero game. We've tried getting him help, but alas...

So I guess the internal storage is really meant for eshop software then as even the 32GB system won't be able to store that many Wii U games.This isn't that big of a deal for me as I already have a 1TB external hard drive I can use for downloaded Wii U games. 64GB SD cards are really coming down in price too. I assume Nintendo kept the storage small in order to cut costs even more and make the system as affordable as it could be. Considering that it sounds like the GamePad alone might cost $150 that's probably a good thing.

I wonder if there is an ability to buy Premium outside of the 32gb because if I do get the system it will be the white one. and the extra 24gb isn't alot since I can just buy a 500gb hard drive for the extra money.

And IMO the premium service isn't much. Sure 10% is nice and all but in the end if that is all that it has to offer I will skip it. Main reason is that if I buy the 32gb system there may only be a few games that I would like in the 2 years and it would only end up being a pointless investment.

If they offered old Wii games at 50% off, Free VC or WiiWare games from time to time (like every month) also then I would be interested in paying for the 32bg system.

If neither system is coming with a game and the only noticeable difference is 8Gb white vs 32Gb black than I'm assuming the "Premium" package includes the 10% discount for 2 years and maybe later on they'll sell it separately. What else would justify the price?

@King_BooWell they've said you'll be able to download full retail games. Virtual Console will be available and we know that Trine 2: Directors Cut will be among the first downloadable titles to hit the WiiU eShop.

I hope there is no membership fee for Nintendo Network. That would suck!Online Membership fees are what convinced me to never get an XBox.PSN, however, I can respect. Hopefully Sony and Nintendo can get the videogame back to business as usual offering great games without a catch or hidden fees.If executed correctly, Microsoft will have no choice but to follow suit. Unless they want XBox to go the way of the Dreamcast. But as a gamer, even I don't want to see that. I just want all systems to offer a free online experience. We're already paying a monthly fee for our internet service, so let's not charge for Nintendo Network, please, let's just NOT.

10% is very little, and if the difference between packages is really $100, remember you can pick up an additional 32Gb for around $15, meaning Nintendo Premium would have to be worth $85 for this to be a decent deal. Not a great deal, but a decent one. If discounts are the only benefit to Premium (probably not), you'd have to buy more than $850 worth of online content for Premium to be a good deal in that case.

This would be the one thing that could potentially convince me to buy the deluxe package, because reggie made it sound like you'd get your subscription free with that set. Extra memory isn't in short supply for me, and Nintendoland isn't worth $50 extra over the basic set either.